The Fight of the Afterlife
by BlueDragon007
Summary: While flying home, Danny was kidnapped by some man. Now, he is forced to fight other ghosts in the Ghost Tournament in Texas while his family and friends are looking for him. Join Danny in his fight of the afterlife and his biggest adventure. -Before PP (Collaboration with AstroPhantom)
1. Round 1: Taken Away

**The Fight of the Afterlife - Round 1: Taken Away**

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 ** _(A/n) NOTE: Please have in mind that this story is not written by only one author! This story is own by AstroPhantom and BlueDragon007_**

 _ **BlueDragon007: Hello people that I never saw before! XD I just hope that you'll enjoy in this story. My partner, AstroPhantom, is a great writer and you should definitely check out her stories! (Seriously, they are awesome)**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: Thank you, Blue, and hi everybody! :) You should also go read her amazing stories. There are some fantastic plotlines to be found in them! As for this, it is both our first collab fics, and it was a lot of fun to write!**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: Thank you Astro and now, onto the story, enjoy ;)**_

* * *

All of Danny's effort was split between two tasks at the moment: half of it was going towards working on his school physics project with Paulina, and the other half was going into _not_ getting caught staring dreamily at her whenever she giggled in that beautiful accent of hers.

Overall, however, this was going surprisingly well. True, Paulina had visibly rolled her eyes when Mr. Wiseman had assigned them to be project partners, and her father, Mr. Sanchez had made it clear that they were to meet at her house only so he could make sure they were working hard. But once they settled into their project, both teens seemed to be having a rather good time for doing schoolwork.

Danny wrote notes down as Paulina fed him her ideas. "So, I say we have sections for each planet's gravity on both sides of the display, four and four. And then the Earth and moon can be in the center as the control cases."

"Yeah, and then we can have equations under each planet so people can figure out their weight under different gravities, and we can put someone else's weights for comparison."

"Maybe we could use Mr. Wiseman for that," she suggested.

"Or his briefcase," Danny snickered. "That thing has to weigh a ton. It's like he brings everything in his house to school in it!"

Danny's watch began to beep, signaling it was 5:30 and time for him to go. Part of him felt disappointed that the afternoon had gone by so quickly, but the two of them continued to laugh as they began to clean up their notes.

"So tomorrow we'll figure out the equations and start writing the sections on the planets?" Paulina asked as she guided him to the front door.

"Sure! I'll come by same time after school," he answered, shifting his backpack higher on his shoulder.

"It's a date. Bye Danny!" With a little wave, she closed the door.

"Bye..." Danny returned, stunned. _Did she just say...?_ He was sure she didn't mean it too literally, but part of him dared to hope. Did this mean she was into him, even a little bit, for some miraculous reason? Or was this something she said to everyone? He had to call Tucker when he got home.

Speaking of home, Danny realized he was a few good miles from it, not that this was a problem for him. He simply walked to the end of the block, ducked into an alley, and came out the other side transformed as Phantom. As he took to flying just above the buildings, he reveled in the wind pushing back his hair and cooling his face, both from the day's warmth and from the still-lingering effects of Paulina's comment. He would never get tired of how calming and peaceful flying was.

That peace was broken in nearly three seconds, however, as Danny felt his body being yanked out of the air. His mind tried to grasp onto what was happening, but his focus turned to pure pain as his head hit concrete. Dizzily, he struggled to regain control of his senses and finally noticed his arms and legs were constricted-he was in a net.

"Ugh, what's happening?" Still a bit dazed, he managed to order the words correctly somehow. He turned his head to the left as much he could and recognized a black van with wide-open back doors.

As Danny began to put the pieces together of what was happening around him, the first thing he noticed was a really strange and mysterious man in his twenties. In comparison, Danny felt like a ten-year-old boy that got grounded...literally. He took a good look at his captor with his radioactive green eyes. The mystery man had slicked-black dark hair and sky blue eyes, and his face expression showed that he was pleased with his catch. Around his neck was an ordinary silver chain, and he wore a black-stained shirt, which had some traces of ectoplasm on it, and ripped jeans. And for some reason, he didn't like the white Nike shoes on the man's feet.

Danny didn't know how or why, but he was more scared than usual and millions of questions were going through his head in a matter of seconds. The main questions were, _What does this man want? What is he planning to do with me?_ And still somewhere in the depths of his teenage mind, _Is Paulina really into me, even a little?_

The man noticed that Phantom wasn't paying any major attention to the outside world so he decided to act quickly.

While Danny's brain was still racing with questions, he suddenly felt someone raise him up into the air and, after a few seconds, he was locked in a small ghost-proof cage. He felt like some trapped animal and, to make things worse, everything had happened so fast that he couldn't even process the event until it was too late. It practically seemed like the man had some supernatural abilities himself, like super speed or teleportation.

Danny heard the van doors behind him close and lock. He peered around and noticed that most of the van was empty. There were a few ghost weapons like ghost detectors, anti-ghost nets, something that looked like an ecto-gun, and some more cages, but something caught Danny's eye in particular: a Fenton Thermos. He wondered why the man had it; did his parents sell it to him, or did he steal it or something? Danny abruptly realized it was stolen as he took note of the empty space on his belt clip with a frustrated sigh. The man must have taken it from him right after he trapped him in the net.

Now that the doors were closed, there was only one source of light left in the van: Danny's faint white glow that surrounded him. But his hearing immediately heightened in the darkness in response, and he listened for the man's return. Instead, however, he heard a male voice somewhere nearby outside say, " _Boss, I got him_."

* * *

"Jack, honey, have you heard from Danny in the past few hours? I keep trying to call him, but he won't answer," Maddie asked around the corner of the lab stairwell, her hand on the wall.

"No..." Jack mumbled distractedly. His hands and focus were toying with a gadget on the table in front of him.

"Well, he was supposed to be home an hour ago," she stated, her hands now resting on her hips authoritatively.

"Didn't he have a sleepover at Tucker's tonight?"

"No, that's tomorrow."

"But isn't it Thursday?"

"It's Wednesday, Jack."

His eyes lit up excitedly. "Hey! That means my coupon's still good!" He shrank back under his wife's withering glare. "I mean...he'll be fine. They're probably busy doing homework, or up to usual teenage stuff, and he just forgot to call."

Maddie hid her grimace as she turned back towards the stairs, her thumbs twisting over each other. "I guess you're right..."

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	2. Round 2: Van Boredom

**Round 2: Van Boredom**

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 _ ***A/N***_

 _ **AstroPhantom: We're baaaaack! Things start to heat up in this chapter, so be prepared! Fudge will be served promptly at the end of this chapter. ;P**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: Indeed, but what are you saying that we heat them more by some reviews? Astro, and what about cookies?**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: Oh, I'd take us up on that in a heartbeat. Let's make this story light up in review-fueled flames! Which will be**_ ** _perfect to bake the cookies on. ;) Read on to enjoy, with the promise of yummy treats awaiting you!_**

 ** _BlueDragon007: That's what I'm talking about! Now onto the story and see what we prepared for you this time ;)_**

* * *

Danny was waiting for the man to come back into the van. He had a feeling like ten hours had passed, but in reality it had only been ten minutes. Time ran slower when you are locked in a cage in the dark.

Not soon after, he heard the front door open and saw a new source of bright light that blinded him for two seconds.

Danny saw none other than his captor sitting in the van. The man closed the front door with a loud ' _SLAM_ ' and turned on the engine.

When Danny heard the door closing, he began to feel really scared and nervous. The fact that the man didn't even look at him when he put him in that stupid small cage made him even more anxious. He didn't know what to do. Danny tried to turn intangible and fly out of the cage, but as a result, he got pain, lots and lots of it. He even yelped. It looked like Danny's scream brought a bit of attention to the man and he smiled a bit.

"What's so funny, van head?" Danny asked, clearly annoyed. He didn't like the man's smile; it was creepy! But then Danny remembered that he didn't know the man's name. He could use that to annoy him without too much risk since if the man wanted him dead, he would already be.

"Strong silent type, huh?" Danny asked and let out an evil grin.

"I would keep that energy for later," the man said with a cold and deep voice. This was the first time that Danny had heard the man's voice so close.

"Look who finally decided to talk," Danny said, clearly trying to annoy the man. "So...what's your name?" The man strongly ignored him.

"Ok, glad to meet you Mr. No Name," Danny said.

After a few minutes of silence, he decided to ask the man one more question. "Where are we going?"

The man was quiet for three minutes, probably questioning himself on if he should tell him the answer or not. At the end, the man decided to answer. "Somewhere far, far away, where no one can find you," he answered with his deep mysterious voice.

At that Danny shut up.

* * *

Jack was at home in the lab, fixing some of his gadgets while Maddie was upstairs, hoping that Danny would call or come home.

In the lab, Jack noticed that he was missing a few components, so he decided to go out to the hardware shop. Maybe this trip would also give him the chance to spend his coupon that would expire tomorrow.

He clamored up the stairs, his unfinished device in hand, and gave Maddie a brief kiss as he continued towards the front door. "I'm going out to the store, Mads. This thing just needs a few more nuts and bolts and then it'll be done!"

Maddie's mind was clearly distracted. She felt very on-edge about the current situation. Jack could see the tension in her eyes bubbling up, threatening to push her to go search for Danny if the teen didn't contact them soon. He walked back over to her and purposefully wrapped his bulky arms around her petite frame. A Jack Fenton trademark hug would surely lift her spirits, if just a little bit.

"Look at me, Maddie. He'll be home soon. And if not, he'll call. And if not that-" His wife gave him a Look here. "Then he just forgot. It's Danny we're talking about here. He does this kind of thing all the time. But he always comes back. You know that." He gave her an extra squeeze.

"I know, but something just...doesn't feel right," Maddie returned, clinging hopefully to her husband's orange jumpsuit.

"He'll be fine. But I gotta go before they close. I'll be back soon!" A final kiss, and he was out the door.

Jack walked out to the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle and stepped up to the front seat. He always enjoyed that raw feeling of power the GAV inspired when he sat in it. Others didn't appreciate it nearly as much though, particularly when he actually drove it.

But no one was in the car with him to spoil his mood, so he revved it up and got to Clark's Hardware in record time.

On the way home, Jack even got the chance to use his coupon for a nice big box of fudge. Perhaps his plan to split it with Maddie would cheer her up...

...If he could keep his hand out of it until then, that is. Almost a full row of the chocolatey goodness was gone by the time he got within two miles of FentonWorks. Not surprisingly, the presence of fudge made his driving even more hazardous. Food trucks, a black mysterious van, and about a dozen cars on their way home from work all honked at him, along with other rude gestures.

Jack paid them no mind though. He had fudge.

* * *

Danny felt disoriented beyond compare. He had no idea which direction this man was driving, or even how long it had been. His best guess was that at least a good handful of hours had passed, and that it was probably nighttime.

At some point, he felt the van stop and heard the man shut it off and get out. Were they at his destination now? Danny braced for the back doors to open.

Nope. Instead of the doors, he heard the cap of the gas tank being twisted off and carelessly hitting the side of the vehicle. They must be at a gas station. Danny sighed frustratedly. That probably meant his "trip" was far from over.

Danny looked around the van, trying to think of some way to escape. He saw some kind of cell phone on the floor, not so far from his cage. ' _Maybe I can reach it and call Sam and_ _Tucker_ ,'Danny thought and forgetting that he was in his ghost form, trapped in a ghost-proof cage, he tried to reach it, but all he got was a painful shock.

"Oh, right," Danny said to himself, rubbing his forehead with his right hand. He was thinking about how he could reach that phone, until he remembered that he is only half-ghost.

In a flash of light, Danny turned into his human form, hoping that Mr. No Name hadn't noticed the strange light coming from the van. Unfortunately he did and in response, the man started to act quickly. Danny probably had only 110 seconds to reach the phone and contact Sam or Tucker.

As a quick test, Danny touched the cage to see if he would be shocked again, but by his luck, he wasn't. At that, Danny let out a satisfied smile. He reached his hand towards the cell phone. He struggled to get it, but after thirty seconds, he finally had it.

Knowing that Mr. No Name would probably be back soon, Danny decided to jump into action and turned on the phone. But all of his hopes were crushed when he saw that there was no signal and the battery would soon be empty.

Danny heard the front door open and quickly, in a white flash of light, transformed into his alter ego, Danny Phantom.

The man sat in the van and closed the door. He looked at Danny, wondering what he was planning.

"What are you looking at?" Danny asked annoyed, clearly trying to avoid the man's stare.

The man just ignored him and turned on the engine. "What will you do with me, Mr. No Name?" Danny asked, but the man ignored him, again.

Danny got sick of being ignored but then remembered that he was still holding the cell phone behind his back. He threw the phone at the man's head so that after the hit, he almost crashed the van into a tree.

The man growled. "You little!" he said with his angry voice and parked the van close to the road. "What the heck is your problem?!" the man shouted.

"You! Stop ignoring me already, Mr. No Name!" Danny shouted back.

"I have a name, you know."

"And what would that be? Empty Head?" Danny said, laughing a bit.

"My name is Rob, and if you want to keep that smile of yours, I would suggest you shut up!" the mysterious man, that proclaimed himself as Rob, threatened to Danny.

"What will you do, rob my smile?" Danny teased.

At that, Rob rolled his eyes and took out his ecto-gun. "Listen to me, I don't care how much my boss is paying me to bring you to him, I swear that I will kill you if you don't shut up!" Rob threatened again, and at that Danny shut his mouth.

All of the sudden, Rob's cell phone started to ring. He left the van to pick up, unaware that Danny was listening.

 _"Hello boss, what do you need?"_

 _"Um... I'm not sure that I will deliver him soon. He is really annoying. I think that he will even annoy the audience when he fights in the arena."_

 _"Wait, you want me to deliver him tomorrow, in the morning?"_

 _"I'm afraid that that's not possible, not without a raise."_

 _"Then it is a deal. See you soon then,"_ Rob said, hanging up the phone. He came back into the van and, without a word, started to drive to his destination. He didn't have a lot of time.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	3. Round 3: Not All Bad

**Round 3 - Not All Bad**

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 ** _BlueDragon007: Hm... Didn't we set a world limit per writer?_**

 ** _AstroPhantom: We did, we did. We must have lost it somewhere... *looks under chair* Nope, not there._**

* * *

Maddie's head bolted upright, dazed and disoriented, as she took in her unfamiliar surroundings. There was no Jack next to her, and no warmth of her bed comforting her. Her eyes finally landed on an object in front of her, and she shook the cloud of confusion away, letting her mind clear and wake up.

She was sitting at the kitchen table, a half-filled mug of cold coffee forgotten nearby. The clock on the wall read 7:13 am. She must have fallen asleep at some point while waiting for Danny to come home last night.

Danny. He surely must have come home by now. He had to get ready for school within the hour, and she was sure he didn't have spare clothes at his friends' houses. After all, she did his laundry. Just as Maddie stood up from the table to go check his room, Jack walked in. His groggy face had a contorted twist to it as his hand lunged for the coffee pot.

Maddie sat back down and nervously picked at the blue sleeve covering her arm. "Morning, honey. Have you, by any chance, looked in Danny's room yet today?"

"Yeah," he cleared out his throat, watching his wife's eyes fill with hope. "And he's not there. But you look like you could use a new cup of coffee." He gazed over her form; obviously sleeping in a chair did not get her any fulfilling sleep.

"He's _still_ not home?!" Maddie's nerves were alarmed by this news. Something about all of this wasn't boding well with her. They would have heard from him somehow by now, if he wasn't already home.

After a few sips of coffee, Jack could sense that he needed to reassure. He put down his mug and began to gently massage her shoulders. "I'm sure this is all just a freaky matter of coincidences. He must have been overloaded with schoolwork, and perhaps his phone died before he had a chance to call. We'll have to talk to him about all of this though when he comes back, okay? He can't just let you worry like this."

"Oh, I don't even care about that right now," she responded. "I just want to know Danny's okay."

"I'm sure he is-"

"Well, I'm not. Something feels...off. I'm going to try calling him again."

Jack watched as Maddie picked up the phone that had been lying expectantly on the table all night and took it to the adjoining living room. She dialed in her son's cell phone number, waiting for him to answer. Her face fell as she once again heard, " _Hey, this is Danny. I can't talk right now, so please..._ "

Without hesitating, Maddie began to call Sam. She hated to have to call this early, but if there was anyone who would know where Danny was, it would be Sam or Tucker. On the second ring she heard a curious "hello?"

"Hi Sam. It's me, Mrs. Fenton."

"Oh, uh, hi...what's going on?" Sam asked, confused by the unexpected call.

"Have you seen Danny since school yesterday? Did he spend the night at your house?" Once again, there was hope in her question.

"No...why?"

Maddie sighed. She didn't want to spread her worry to Danny's friends, but she didn't have much of a choice. "He hasn't come home yet, and he won't answer his phone. Do you know if he spent the night at Tucker's?"

"No, I haven't talked to either of them since school. We're all busy with our term projects. But you could try checking with Tucker." There was more alertness to Sam's voice now. Alertness and concern.

"Okay, thanks Sam. And if you see Danny at school, can you please tell him to call me?"

"Sure thing, Mrs. Fenton." Click.

Maddie called Tucker next and proceeded to ask him the same questions, but no luck. According to him, the last he heard from Danny was in a text message about working with Paulina on their project, after he had already left her house. Which means she wouldn't know anything about his whereabouts either.

As she numbly put the phone down on the coffee table in front of her, Maddie's chest began to tighten. There was still the chance that Danny would show up at school, but the fact that no one had really heard from him since yesterday troubled her deeply.

Something was up with her Danny.

* * *

Danny was feeling sleepy. He didn't know when Rob would get to his destination, so he decided to rest his eyes a bit. But when he closed his eyes, not soon after, he felt some strong force and then nothing.

Danny realized that the van had probably stopped moving. He looked where Rob was supposed to be, but he wasn't there. He probably went out of the van while Danny wasn't looking.

He didn't know how long he was waiting for something to happen, but he assumed that it had probably been one hour. Darkness was all he was watching this one hour, until some bright light blinded him. He put his hand in front of his eyes to protect them from the light.

When Danny's eyes finally adjusted to the light, he noticed Rob, smiling evilly.

"Hello, punk. Guess what? We're here," Rob said with a dark voice from outside. He was happy on the inside though; he finally got rid of that annoying ghostly rat.

Rob put some kind of blanket on Danny's cage before he had a chance to say something annoying, but what Rob didn't know was that in the blanket was a small hole, which Danny noticed.

Danny felt Rob lift the cage and he peeked through the hole in the blanket. He didn't see much, except a round building that looked like some sort of arena. What he didn't know, however, was that below the building was a prison and that around it was a ghost shield, even more than one.

Rob walked into the building and straight to some brown wooden doors that were at the end of a hall. He opened them and inside was a man, sitting in a leather chair at a wooden desk,upon which was a white Chinese porcelain vase with a blue dragon on it. The floor and the walls were also wooden. A skull, from some kind of animal with horns, was hanging on the wall above the man's head and all over the walls were pictures of ghosts, most of them fighting each other. Danny shivered at the sight; if this was how this room looked, then he didn't want to see the rest.

"Hello boss, I got him," Rob said as he put the cage on the desk while Danny took a look at the other man. He had a brown cowboy hat on and black hair that was sticking out of it. He had a cigar in his mouth and when he smiled when Rob said that he got Phantom, Danny saw a golden tooth.

The man wore a black jacket with a skull on one shoulder, but he didn't wear any kind of shirt. Besides that, Danny didn't see anything else on the man.

"Excellent...and what did I tell you about calling me boss? I don't like it," the man said. He just didn't feel comfortable when someone called him boss.

"Yeah, sorry boss." The man glared at Rob. "Sorry...Jeff," Rob corrected himself and the man, Jeff, smiled.

Jeff took out a brown envelope from his jacket. "Here's your money," he said, and handed over the envelope.

"You can choose now. You can go home free, or you can do one more task for me," he added while Rob was opening the envelope and starting to count the money to see that everything was inside the deal. He needed that money for his daughter. Her mom had died in a car crash and now he was the only one that could look after her. The only problem was that he didn't have much money for the surgery that his daughter needed, and without it, she would die next year.

Seeing that Jeff didn't trick him, he decided to accept the deal. "What kind of deal?" He asked and Jeff let out an evil grin.

"Well, since you took care of the first job so well and you were also the only one that signed for it, I was wondering if you would be interested in watching and taking care of Phantom, like he is your pet," Jeff said.

At that, Rob screamed in his head. But if the money was good, then he would accept the deal. "And how much will you pay me?" he asked.

"Ten thousand bucks per month if the show is popular," Jeff answered.

Rob eyed him suspiciously. "And if not?"

"Then our deal is off and I will dissolve him, personally," Jeff answered and Danny winced. In his mind right now was only one thought: he needed to escape and fast.

Rob looked at the cage Phantom was in. Little did he know, he would soon grow to have a soft spot for Phantom.

"Can you please get out of my office now? I want some privacy, and leave Phantom with me," Jeff said and without any word, Rob left the office and closed the doors.

Jeff removed the old blanket from the cage and looked the ghost straight in the eyes. The only thing he saw was a beautiful specimen.


	4. Round 4: Settling In

**Round 4 - Settling In**

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 _ **(A/n)** **BlueDragon007: Hello people! Guess what! The gang is back! We are really sorry that we didn't upload this story before, but I was busy with... Hehe... Writing my Halloween Special plsdontkillme!**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: Indeed, we are sorry... But it was a spectacular Halloween special, though! You all should go check it out (so you can see why the wait for this chapter is justified)! ;)**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: Aww... Tnx! You really think that? And by the way, the story is called Halloween Special**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: Yeah! It's pretty awesome! I might be biased since I'm a sucker for party stories, but it really does rock!**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: Cool! Hm... Don't worry, you are not sucker for a party stories.**_  
 _ **PS. This whole chapter is written by AstroPhantom, not me, so you should give all the credit for this chapter to her.**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: Haha! Well, thank you, but you wrote some of it as well and deserve credit. :) But either way, I say we should back away now and let the people read what they came here for, yes? You ready, readers?!**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: Yw ;) I think that readers are definitely ready. GET SET AND START READING! XD Enjoy**_!

* * *

 _Jeff removed the old blanket from the cage and looked the ghost straight in the eyes. The only thing he saw was a beautiful specimen._

"Hello, ghost," Jeff said with a bit of disgust in his voice. This would end really badly for Danny.

"So...you are the one called _Danny Phantom_ ," Jeff continued. "The infamous ghost-slash-protector of Amity Park?" he asked, but it sounded more like a fact than a question.

"Actually, I am. And who are you? The king of bad breath smell?" Danny said. Jeff's mouth did smell really bad and he decided to use it against him.

Jeff got angry at Phantom's comment; no one ever talked to him like that. "Be quiet, ghost," he shouted and Danny glared at him, thinking it's not nice when someone called him a ghost while, in fact, he was only half ghost...

"Or what? You'll keep talking near my nose until I pass out?" Danny dared Jeff. Who knew, maybe in his moment of anger Jeff would open the cage which would allow Danny to escape, but he knew that was never gonna happen.

"Maybe I will, or maybe I will do something worse..." Jeff threatened and then decided to explain to the ghost a bit about how things worked around there. "But that's not what matters now...you see, you are here with only one purpose: to fight, and entertain the audience."

"Audience?" Danny cut off and Jeff smiled at the question.

"Yes, audience...I'll be short...you see...this is an arena. Ghosts fight here while other people pay for it and watch it."

Danny gulped at that. He didn't like that, even a little. "And what if I refuse to fight?" he asked.

Jeff took out something from his pocket. It was an electro-shocker. "This," he answered and shocked Danny with enough electricity that would knock down every normal living thing, but Danny here wasn't quite normal. He screamed from pain and it took all of his will force not to summon transformation rings and change back to Danny Fenton.

"Oh come on...that wasn't so bad..." Jeff said and took his mobile out while Danny glared at him. He dialed someone's phone number and soon after someone answered Jeff's call.

" _Hi Rob, it's Jeff. You have a ghost to pick up. Come as soon as possible_ ," Jeff hung up the phone and Danny immediately knew that he had called Rob, his kidnapper.

* * *

Maddie nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a buzz against her hip. "Dammit," she whispered to herself, quickly dapping at the spilled ectoplasm on her jumpsuit with a rag. She placed the ecto-gun she'd been working on uselessly to the side and answered her phone, her heart pounding. "Hello? Danny?"

"Sorry Mrs. F." It was Tucker.

"Oh. Hi Tucker," Maddie sighed. "Any good news?"

"Nope, sorry. He hasn't shown up to any of his classes, and no one, not even any of his teachers, have seen or heard from him. I even double-checked with Paulina and she said once he left her house, that was it. He didn't come back or anything."

Her stomach began to twist in knots, and she choked on her voice as she responded, "Alright...thanks for letting me know. I'll try to keep you two updated. Bye."

She barely waited for Tucker to hang up before she burst into tears in the solitude of the lab. It hadn't even been a full day, but Maddie was in dire stress and was quickly losing hope over the situation. She just wanted her son back home, safe and sound, so she could hug him.

Eventually, her eyes cleared away and a somewhat clearer conscience took over again. As much as she hated to admit it, she and Jack should call the police. Danny wouldn't have just run off like that; there wasn't anything in his life that would have made him leave, at least as far as she knew. He was a happy kid, for the most part, a normal teenager. Which only meant one thing.

Someone must have taken Danny away.

This thought shook Maddie to the core. There were so many unknowns involved. Who took him, and why? Were ghosts somehow responsible? Was he okay? Was he...dead? No. It was too soon for her to be having these kinds of thoughts. They needed to start an investigation. That's what she should be focusing on. They'd find him and bring his captor to justice.

With a renewed sense of purpose Maddie trekked up the stairs through the kitchen and into the living room. Jack was sitting tensely on the couch, his hands working on his latest needlepoint project but his mind clearly elsewhere. Danny being gone had finally caught up to him too.

Jack looked up at her when he heard a rattle of keys. "Where are you going?"

Maddie tossed the keys at him. " _We_ are going to the police station to find Danny. Come on."

* * *

Danny's senses were on high alert as Rob carried him in his cage down a dank, dark hallway. Every few yards there was a door with a heavy lock and keypad on it, leading to who-knew-where.

At some point, Rob set him down on the ground to unlock one of these doors, blocking out the ghost's view of the lock with his back as he inputted a code into the keypad and inserted a key into the lock. He then picked Danny's cage back up and walked down the new hallway.

This hallway was much different than the previous one, however. Its surfaces were covered with metal, not stone, like the other. And instead of mysterious, threatening doors, there were a series of thick transparent glass doors on each side of the hall, with little square rooms beyond each of those. Holding cells.

In each of those cells, Danny could see a ghost. Some of them looked familiar from previous battles with them, but others he had never seen before. He shivered. Jeff had said he would have to fight ghosts here, and these must be his opponents.

Rob finally stopped walking towards the end of the hall, and turned to an empty holding cell on his left. He entered another code on its keypad, and the glass door opened with a hiss and slid up into the ceiling.

He stepped into the cell and placed the cage in the center on the ground, then backed out and closed the door again.

Danny glared at the man. "What, you're just gonna put me in this room and not let me out of the cage?"

"Tempting, but no," Rob answered, pulling a tiny remote out of his pocket. With a click of its button, the walls of the cage fell away from Danny.

He stretched out into the air, his legs sore from twelve-plus hours of being folded up in that metal hell. "I'd say thanks, but considering you've KIDNAPPED me, I can let it slip by," Danny remarked sarcastically.

Once Rob had left, Danny sagged against the wall. He was utterly exhausted, and scared. He had no idea where this place was exactly.

He wondered if his parents had even noticed he was gone, and if so, were they doing something about it?

What about Sam and Tucker? Surely they must have noticed his absence by now. Were they doing okay without him? Was Amity Park okay without him? He could only hope there weren't too many ghost attacks while he was gone. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if something happened just because he wasn't there to protect the town.

Danny could only pray that Sam and Tucker had everything under control as his eyelids finally closed shut.


	5. Round 5: A First Fight

**Round 5- A First Fight**

* * *

 _ **(A/n)**_ ** _AstroPhantom: Happy holidays everyone! As an early gift for the season we have...a new chapter! :)_**

 ** _BlueDrago007: Isn't it a bit too early for the holidays?_**

 ** _AstroPhantom: Nope! Only 18 more days 'til Christmas! : D_**

 ** _BlueDragon007: 18? That's tooo long!_**

 ** _AstroPhantom: Yeah! Hurry up Christmas!_**

 ** _BlueDragon007: What?! Why? There is still time!_**

 ** _AstroPhantom: Hehe, I guess I just want it to be Christmas morning already. I'm a kid at heart. : D_**

 ** _BlueDragon007: Yeah... We know that..._**

 ** _AstroPhantom: XD True, or else I wouldn't be here writing a DP fic. Speaking of which, shall we let the readers get to the story?_**

 ** _BlueDragon007: Idk... I'm the evil one... You know how I love to torture them... You decide shall we let them read..._**

 ** _AstroPhantom: Haha! Nah, you're good. : ) I say...on the the show! Enjoy!_**

* * *

Jack and Maddie got ready and went outside to the GAV. Jack was heading to the driver's seat, but Maddie stopped him. "Jack, honey...let me do the driving this time..." she said with a genuine voice.

"Aw... Come on, honey! You know how much I like to drive," Jack said and after a few moments, he remembered that he also installed a new ghost defense system in the GAV. "And I even installed a new ghost defense system!"

"That's nice honey, but we are going to the police. I think that it would be better if I drove," Maddie said. "And plus, you'll get a cookie!" she added when she saw a disappointed look on her husband's face.

Jack's mood lifted up when he heard that; life for him had some meaning again. "Okay, you drive," he said and Maddie handed him a cookie that he ate in less than a second. "Mmm! Delicious! Can I have more?"

"No," Maddie answered and went in the GAV, with Jack following after her on the other side.

Maddie was driving safely through the city, and the streets were now in more safety. Even ghosts sometimes didn't do as much damage to property as Jack did when he drove.

After about twenty minutes, Maddie and Jack came to the police station to report that their son had been missing for over a day. They both jumped out of the GAV, not even bothering it to lock it, but Maddie did take a key with her, and speed-walked into the police station.

"Hello, how can I help you?" the police officer that worked at the station asked Maddie and Jack when they came in.

"We want to report our missing son," Maddie said as calmly as she could.

"I bet those dirty ghosts kidnapped him!" Jack added. Maybe he didn't know it, but he had just embarrassed himself.

"Okay... What's his name, and do you have a picture of him?" the policeman asked.

Maddie took out her wallet and showed the man the picture of her son, Danny. "His name is Daniel Fenton," she answered the question.

The policeman wrote it down, then took a better look at the photo that Maddie showed him and asked if he could take it so it could help in finding the boy.

Maddie wasn't happy with the policeman taking the picture of her son, but what had to be done had to be done...

"When was the last time you saw the boy?" the policeman asked again.

"Yesterday afternoon, when Danny left to do some project at the house of Paulina Sanchez." This time, Jack answered.

"Okay... Thank you for the information. The police will take it from here. We'll inform you when we find something, but for now, goodbye."

"Goodbye," Maddie and Jack said at the same time and went home in their GAV. At least no one had stolen it while they were gone.

* * *

Danny had oddly slept soundly that night. The exhaustion of the past two days had finally caught up to him, and his body jumped at the opportunity for any amount of sleep, despite the constant train of worrying, panicked thoughts roaring through his mind. Yet that train of thoughts hit him full force again when a series of blaring beeps filled echoed in his holding cell.

With a strained groan, Danny's eyes bolted open and took in his surroundings. No immediate threats were found. Just pure metallic emptiness.

 _It must just be their wake-up alarm_ , he thought. _Great. Can't wait to hear that every morning_.

As his body woke up more, he began to hear the grumblings of ghosts in the surrounding holding cells. He started to wonder who they were, how they got here. Did he know any of them? Sure, he wasn't in Amity Park, ghost capital of the world, anymore, but that didn't mean he might not recognize some of these ghosts.

And then the footsteps began. From the sound of things, there were maybe five or six people that had just come in the hallway. Danny's senses pricked up, waiting to see and hear if they were coming for him until...

"Get up, Phantom." It was Rob, and judging by the rushed sound of his voice, Rob was on a deadline.

"What is hap-Hey!" Danny's question was cut off as Rob pressed a button on the remote that Jeff had on his office yesterday. Right. The shocker on his neck. He'd almost forgot about that.

As his limbs writhed in pain as electricity bolted down his spine, Rob took the opportunity to enter Danny's cell and, right when the halfa's body sagged from the lack of volts, grabbed his recovering frame and shoved him in his tiny cage from the previous day.

"Hey!" Danny shouted, shaking the bars of his cage when he was able to do so. "What gives? I would've gone in the cage willingly if you had just told me about the shocker."

"Shut up," Rob spat out back at him, picking him up.

Danny grumbled to himself, "Geez, somebody's not a morning person."

Rob carried his cage through another series of hallways until finally, they came to a set of huge doors with guards. They must have known why Rob was there, because without any verbal commands, they opened the doors and let him pass through. And that's when Danny saw it.

An enormous indoor arena stadium greeted him, already mostly filled for so early in the morning. Danny could tell, even from a distance, that the crowd of people was heartless and selfish, just here to be entertained, like Jeff had said.

By fighting. Danny directed his attention to across the open dirt stadium floor, where he saw a small, defenseless-looking ghost cowering under the crowd's intense glare.

He jumped in his cage as Rob's voice whispered to him, "Don't even try to escape. There's a ghost shield right above the field to protect our patrons and to keep _you_ in here."

"Greeeaaaat," Danny drawled out. If only he had the chance to turn back to human and get past that shield...

In about a minute, the walls of his and the other ghost's cages fell away and they both floated in the air. Danny hesitated as he heard the announcer yell, "Aaaaand...FIGHT!" The other ghost seemed just as hesitant as him.

Danny turned back to Rob. "I'm not gonna fight him!" He gestured across the floor behind him. "And I don't think he's gonna fight me!"

Rob simply responded by pressing the shocker button, causing Danny to writhe in pain. Across the stadium, he could hear the other ghost receiving a similar fate.

"Alright, FINE!" Danny exclaimed as the burning sensation in his skin subsided. He turned around to face his opponent, who now look more aggravated and ready to fight him. Well, at least he seemed to have some motivation now to fight back in self-defense.

As the crowd began to boo at the lack of action, Danny floated higher in the air towards the other ghost, who seemed to charge at him with a sense of survival spurring him on.

And within minutes, it was over. Danny came out as an easy victor, as the other ghost had no real fighting skills. As he landed, barely out of breath, he heard the announcer say, "And Danny Phantom as moved on to round two!" So that was the system, winner moves on.

Expectantly, Danny looked across the way to see his next opponent. However, he nearly fell over in shock at who it was.

Standing there like a broken man was none other than Vlad Plasmius.


	6. Round 6: In the Know

**Round 6- In the Know**

* * *

 _ **(A/n)  
**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: Hey people! Guess what!**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: We're baaaaaaack!**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: We are really sorry that we didn't update this fict, but it was actually my fault :'(**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: But the important thing is, we came back in the end. We won't give up! :D**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: But we must hurry up with the writing while I'm still free**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: True. Then I guess we better get back to writing then, huh?**_

 _ **BlueDragon007: Then let's give our dear readers some free time to read this new chapter while he hop on writing the new one. What do you say?**_

 _ **AstroPhantom: I agree. Enjoy!**_

* * *

Danny had to physically close his jaw shut when he saw Plasmius standing weakly on the other side of the arena. It was one thing that he himself had been caught, but _Plasmius_? _Vlad Plasmius_? If he was here, then what other powerful ghosts had been captured?

One thing was for certain: if Vlad was here, that meant they both had a mutual enemy to fight against.

Danny could practically hear Rob's eyebrows rise in surprise at how the ghost boy willingly floated towards his opponent without any fuss when the announcer gave the signal. But he didn't care; he just needed answers from Vlad.

As the two ghosts neared each other center-stage, Danny got a good look at his arch-enemy. His suit was tattered from scorch marks, the lower third of his cape had somehow been ripped off, and the skin around his neck was worn red from what he could only guess were countless shocks. Not to mention the dozens of green splotches and cuts covering his face, and the most empty, broken look Danny had ever seen in anyone's eyes.

"Geez, Vlad. You look like you've seen better days," Danny remarked, trying to egg Vlad on in an attempt to gauge where his mind was. The crowd around them roared on, which would allow them to talk to each other without being heard.

"Good to see you, too, Daniel." So at least Vlad's wit was still there, perhaps sparked by Danny's presence, though there was no heart behind it. If anything, there was almost a hint of sincerity.

Danny's shoulders fell in response, and he floated closer out of concern. There were so many questions to ask, but he started with the most pressing one. "How'd they even get you in-HEY!" His sentence was cut short as Vlad lunged at him, grabbing his hands as Danny fought back is a battle of dominance. "What the heck are you doing, man?!"

Through snarling teeth, Vlad answered, "Calm down, boy. If we don't fight, we get zapped. I'm doing you a favor. The less shocks you get, the better, trust me. Now, we can keep talking, but just pretend to fight me."

The younger halfa barely paused to let the words sink in. It was almost impossible to believe, but here he was, instantly giving Vlad his trust. It amazed him how a change of circumstances could flip things around so easily. "Fine," Danny gritted out. "So, why are you in here?"

"The same way you would try to get me, with the element of surprise. Only this time, it actually worked and now here I am, trapped in Texas."

"WHAT?!" Danny's eyes widened, and Vlad took the opportunity of his momentary lapse to false-slam him forward into the ground. He breathed in a heaving gasp. "So that's where we are? Texas?"

"Focus, Danny!" Vlad ordered, and lifted himself off the ground to strike a sparring stance, which Danny mirrored, and they exchanged fake punches and missed ectoblasts. "Yes, Texas. This whole tournament is basically the hub of an entire black market based on ghost fighting and trading. We're simply fighting bags of money for that fool, Jeff."

Danny squinted his eyes in disgust at that name. " _Jeff_. So, what happens now?"

"We wrap up this fight, and we'll meet later," Vlad explained. "Everyday they let all the ghosts loose in here after the audience goes home so we will naturally pick fights. They pair us off the next day based on that. We can talk more then without attracting too much attention. But for now, pretend to hit me hard. Right in the chest."

"What?! Why?" Danny hissed in an unnecessary whisper.

"I'm letting you win. Don't argue with it." Vlad let his stance relax, and, after some hesitation, Danny mimed hitting him squarely in the chest. He fell backwards onto the ground, his body taking on the air of being defeated.

Somehow feeling motivated by Plasmius' action, Danny let the noise of the crowd come back to him. Over the loudspeaker, the announcer proclaimed, "And the newcomer wins again! On to round three!"

* * *

Jazz came home and went into her room, eating a green apple she had bought while going home since she was scared of the fridge, which contained evil food. If she tried to eat it, it would most likely eat her, so it was not recommended to open the fridge.

She sat at her desk and took one of her books to read from. At some point, she heard a car stopping in front of the house and she decided to look out of the window.

In front of the Fentons' house was the GAV, and soon after, Maddie and Jack Fenton came out of it, their heads towards the ground and tears forming in their eyes again. They closed the doors of the GAV with a loud noise and started making their way towards the house.

Watching the sight, Jazz covered her mouth with both of her hands in shock. She couldn't remember seeing her parents looking so down since Danny's accident in the lab when he became a half-ghost.

She ran downstairs, almost tripping in her slippers, just to see her parents' depressed faces. "Mom... Dad..." she started, but her parents didn't even look at her as Maddie went into the living room to sit on the sofa with her husband Jack.

Jazz gulped. Something was seriously wrong and the major question was where was Danny. She hadn't seen or heard from him for days and there wasn't even any news about Danny Phantom on the television.

She went towards them and sat down next to her mom, putting her left hand on her leg. "Hey mom...what's wrong?" she asked with a gentle voice, trying to get eye contact. "You and Dad are acting off. Can you tell me what's going on?" she asked one more time as she finally managed to bring attention to herself.

Maddie turned her head towards Jazz, at the edge of tears. Suddenly, without any kind of warning, she hugged her, not wanting to lose Jazz too. The world was big, after all.

"Okay..." Jazz said slowly, but what surprised her even more were her mom's tears starting to fall on her shoulder. Now, she was really worried about her parents' mental state. Something was definitely wrong and she was going to find out, no matter what happened. That was a promise that she made to herself as she patted her mother's back to support her a bit.


End file.
